• The list of everything that will be coming to and leaving Netflix in August has been released.
• Among those joining the streaming service are "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement,""Batman Begins," and "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."
• Titles that will be removed include "Finding Dory," "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," and Sausage Party. 

Netflix has released the list of all the titles that will be arriving and leaving the streaming platform in August. 

Oscar-winning movies like "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring,""The Avaiator," and "Million Dollar Baby" will be available. Additionally, fans of CW shows "The 100" and "The Originals" will be able to catch up on the most recent season for each show. 

New Netflix originals will also be dropping, including the movie "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" and the controversial series "Insatiable."

Fans of Disney/Pixar will be disappointed to know that "Finding Dory" will be leaving.

Here's a list of everything coming and going on Netflix in August.

Arriving in August

Available 8/1/18

"Batman Begins"

"Chernobyl Diaries"

"Clerks"

"Constantine"

"Dreamcatcher"

"Edge of Fear"

"Eraser"

"Gran Torino"

House of Deadly Secrets"

"Los tiempos de Pablo Escobar" season one

"Million Dollar Baby"

"No Reservations"

"Once in a Lifetime Sessions With Moby"

"Once in a Lifetime Sessions With Nile Rodgers"

"Once in a Lifetime Sessions With Noel Gallagher"

"Once in a Lifetime Sessions With TLC"

"P.S. I Love You"

"Secretariat"

"Silverado"

"Steel Magnolias"

"Stripes

"Switched"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"The Aviator"

"The Golden Compass"

"The Informant!"

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"

"The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement"

Available 8/2/18

"Emelie"

Available 8/3/18

"Brij Mohan Amar Rahe"— NETFLIX FILM

"Cocaine Coast"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Dinotrux Supercharged" season three — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"I AM A KILLER"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Like Father"— NETFLIX FILM

"Marching Orders"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Available 8/4/18

"Flavors of Youth" international version — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Mr. Sunshine" (streaming every Saturday) — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"On Children"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Available 8/5/18

"Paid in Full"

Available 8/9/18

"Perdida"— NETFLIX FILM

"The Originals" season five

Available 8/10/18

"72 Dangerous Animals: Asia"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Afflicted"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"All About the Washingtons"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Demetri Martin: The Overthinker"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Insatiable"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"La casa de las flores"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Million Pound Menu"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society"— NETFLIX FILM

"The Package"— NETFLIX FILM

"The Ponysitters Club"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Voltron: Legendary Defender" season seven — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Zion"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Available 8/11/18

"No Country for Old Men"

Available 8/13/18

"Alexander: The Ultimate Cut"

"Splash and Bubbles" season two

"The Nut Job"

Available 8/15/18

"Adventures in Public School"

"Hostiles"

"The 100" season five

Available 8/16/18

"Evan Almighty"

"Wish I Was Here"

Available 8/17/18

"Disenchantment"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Magic for Humans"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Pinky Malinky"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Spirit Riding Free" season six — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Stay Here"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"The Motive"— NETFLIX FILM

"To All the Boys I've Loved Before"— NETFLIX FILM

"Ultraviolet"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Available 8/19/18

"The Investigator: A British Crime Story" season two — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Available 8/21/18

"Year One"

Available 8/23/18

"Deadwind"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Follow This" NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Great News" season one

Available 8/24/18

"Ask the StoryBots" season two — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Bert Kreischer: Secret Time"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Ghoul"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"The After Party"— NETFLIX FILM

"The Innocents" — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Trolls: The Beat Goes On!" season three — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Young & Hungry" season five

Available 8/28/18

"The Good Place" season two

Available 8/29/18

"Inequality for All"

Available 8/31/18

"Inside the Criminal Mind" — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Ozark" season two — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Paradise PD" — NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"The Comedy Lineup: Part 2"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"The Laws of Thermodynamics"— NETFLIX FILM

"Ultimate Beastmaster: Survival of the Fittest"— NETFLIX ORIGINAL

"Undercover Law" NETFLIX ORIGINAL

Leaving in August

Leaving 8/1/18

"3000 Miles to Graceland"

"Adventures in Babysitting"

"Can't Buy Me Love"

"Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot" season one

"Finding Dory"

"Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay"

"Reasonable Doubt" 

"The Killing" seasons one through three 

"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"

Leaving 8/2/18

"10 Rules for Sleeping Around"

Leaving 8/5/18

"13 Assassins"

Leaving 8/6/18

"Welcome to Me"

Leaving 8/10/18

"St. Vincent"

Leaving 8/12/18

"For a Good Time, Call …"

Leaving 8/13/18

"Help, I've Shrunk the Family"

Leaving 8/16/18

"Being Flynn"

"Enter the Battlefield"

"Jem and the Holograms" seasons one through three

"Littlest Pet Shop" seasons two through four

"Pariah"

"Pound Puppies" Seasons one through three

"Seeking a Friend for the End of the World"

"The 40-Year-Old Virgin"

"The Adventures of Chuck & Friends" season two

"Transformers Prime" seasons two through three

"Transformers: Rescue Bots" seasons two through four

Leaving 8/23/18

"Sausage Party"

Leaving 8/25/18

"The Road"

For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un 'is a terrorist'

• The eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones" will premiere in the "first half" of 2019.
• HBO programming president Casey Bloys announced the news at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, California on Wednesday.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why Rolex watches are so expensive

• HBO announced new developments for its planned "Game of Thrones" prequel shows.
• Only one of the originally announced five ideas has moved into pilot stage.
• The script was written by Jane Goldman, but HBO says they're still looking for a director and cast. 
• Filming for the pilot is expected to begin in early 2019.
• The other four ideas are in varying states. Programming president Casey Bloys said during HBO's Television Critics Association press event Wednesday in Beverly Hills, California, that they're a combination of "deceased" or just on hold.

HBO's plans for the first "Game of Thrones" prequel show are moving forward, programming president Casey Bloys announced on Wednesday at the Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, California. 

"We hope to be shooting sometime in the new year," Bloys said of the first prequel series idea. He later added it would ideally begin filming in "early" 2019.

The series is currently untitled, but HBO previously confirmed the script was written by Jane Goldman ("Kingsmen,""Kickass") with consulting from author George R.R. Martin. We know it will center on the Age of Heroes and the Long Night, meaning thousands of years before the main events of "Game of Thrones."

Goldman will also serve as a showrunner for the series, though for now HBO has only ordered a pilot (and not yet greenlit the entire series).  

Though previous reports indicated filming for the pilot would start this October, Bloys said there were no such plans in place. The series still needs to find a director, the cast, and crew.

"We have to find a director, we have to cast it," Bloys said. "There were no plans to start in October."

Bloys also spoke about the other four possible ideas that had been announced were in the early script stages last years. 

"The reason we did multiple scripts [is that] out of five we'd be lucky to get one we're really excited about," Bloys said.

Right now, the Goldman script is that special one HBO is excited about. When asked if the other four ideas were "deceased" or just on hold, Bloys said it was a "combination." 

Previously Martin said one of the ideas had been "shelved," bringing to total possible series down to four (including Goldman's unnamed series). Bloys did not elaborate, so it remains unknown if there are still four potential ideas or if that number has been whittled down even further. 

During the same TCA event, Bloys also announced the eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones" will air sometime in the first half of 2019. 

For a closer look at what Goldman's unnamed series set in the Age of Heroes will focus on, read our full breakdown of the prequel news here.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Brazil's empty $300 million World Cup stadium

Chris Hardwick will return as host of AMC’s “Talking Dead” series following an investigation into allegations that he was abusive to former girlfriend Chloe Dykstra.

Hardwick will return as host of “The Walking Dead” aftershow as of Aug. 12. He was suspended from the role by AMC last month after Dykstra penned an essay accusing Hardwick of being emotionally and sexually abusive during their relationship.

“Following a comprehensive assessment by AMC, working with Ivy Kagan Bierman of the firm Loeb & Loeb, who has considerable experience in this area, Chris Hardwick will return to AMC as the host of ‘Talking Dead’ and ‘Talking with Chris Hardwick.’ We take these matters very seriously and given the information available to us after a very careful review, including interviews with numerous individuals, we believe returning Chris to work is the appropriate step,” AMC said in a statement.

AMC tapped Yvette Nicole Brown to sub for Hardwick as the interim host of “Talking Dead” amid the initial uproar over Dykstra’s claims. Brown will remain the host of the Aug. 5 “Walking Dead” Season 9 preview special. Hardwick will be at the helm of “Talking Dead” following the midseason premiere on Aug. 12, with Brown now set to appear on that show as a guest.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 5 science facts that 'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom' totally ignored

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's why the US Men's team sucks at soccer

Binge watching has become the norm for most TV viewers.

Variety reported that Deloitte’s 2017 "Digital Democracy Survey" showed that about 73% of US consumers say they have binge-watched video content, as in they watched three or more episodes of a show in one sitting.

With all the talk about binge watching bolstered today by streaming sites like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, it's easy to forget that the act of viewing back-to-back episodes of your favorite shows have been a TV staple for decades — whether the networks were throwing a marathon or we recorded or purchased the boxed DVD sets of our favorite shows.

Armed with data from the entertainment social platform TV Time and our own personal opinions, INSIDER listed the shows we most recommend that you pull up on your viewing device and marathon the hell out of.

Here are our picks for the 24 best TV shows to binge watch.

"Riverdale" (The CW)

"Riverdale," a dark and twisted take on beloved characters from Archie Comics, was a surprise smash hit when it first premiered on The CW. The series takes normal high school drama and romances but infuses it with mobsters and murder to create an intriguing show full of twists. It's easy to follow and not emotionally draining to watch. "Riverdale" is coming back for a third season in October. — Anjelica Oswald 

Where to stream: Netflix 

"The Sinner" (USA)

There's no other way I would suggest one watch "The Sinner," but to binge it. That's because the story flips so fast on you that it's impossible not to need to know the fallout right away. Prepare to have all your guesses about why a seemingly normal housewife suddenly stabs a man to death on the beach be wrong. — Jethro Nededog

Where to stream: Netflix

"Bates Motel" (A&E)

"Bates Motel" is a dark horror series serving as a prequel to Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho." It follows a young Norman Bates and his twisted relationship with his mother as he transforms into the serial killer shown in the old film. There are various twists that will keep viewers on their toes as Norman's memory falters due to his dissociative identity disorder. — Anjelica Oswald 

Where to stream: Netflix

• The third episode of Dr. Sandra Lee's TLC series "Dr. Pimple Popper" aired on Wednesday night. 
• One patient featured on the episode is Mary, a woman whose left side is far larger than her right. 
• At first, the case stumps Lee, so she consults other doctors and orders more tests.
• By the end of the episode, Lee diagnoses Mary with a hemihyperplasia–multiple lipomatosis syndrome. 
• It's a rare condition that causes fatty tumors known as lipomas and abnormal growth in one part or side of the body, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
• INSIDER spoke with a dermatologist to learn more about the condition.

"Dr. Pimple Popper" — the new TLC series starring dermatologist Dr. Sandra Lee — premiered on July 11. And so far, the episodes have featured many of the same bumps Lee has long been popping on her YouTube channel — think epidermoid cysts, steatocystomas, and lipomas. 

But the latest episode, which aired Wednesday July 25, featured a true mystery: A woman whose body is bigger on one side than the other. 

Here's a closer look at the episode and the patient's fascinating diagnosis. 

The episode opens with Mary, a 45-year-old woman whose right and left sides are totally different sizes.

In an interview filmed at her home in Texas, Mary explains that she first noticed the excess growth in her left thigh when she was 25 years old. Today, her left side is a size 18, while her right side is a 10. The size difference affects her intimate relationship with her boyfriend and her ability to wear clothes. 

"I'm not sure exactly how it started," Mary says. "I just started noticing my left thigh growing and it continued to grow."

Doctors previously told her she had fatty tumors and removed some of the tissue with liposuction, but it grew back even more aggressively, she adds.

"I do worry what it is and is it going to kill me, and is it going to carry over to my kids," Mary says in the interview. 

At first, Lee is stumped by Mary's unexplained asymmetry. 

After a consultation and exam, Lee is unsure exactly what's going on beneath Mary's skin. 

"My first thought with Mary is, 'This is fascinating,'" Lee says during the episode. "I have never seen anything like this before. I don't even know if I've seen it in textbooks."

Lee decides to send Mary for additional tests and consult fellow doctors to get closer to a diagnosis. Before all that, though, she performs liposuction to remove some about 1,000 milliliters of excess fat from Mary's left thigh — a temporary fix to help her appear more symmetrical. 

"Dr. Lee doesn't really know what's going on," Mary says in the episode. "So I'm a little concerned ... the worst thing could be that it's terminal, that it's going to cause me to have problems with my internal organs and it's going to kill me. So it's really scary."

By the end of the episode, Lee has a diagnosis: hemihyperplasia–multiple lipomatosis syndrome.

Lee orders a CT scan for Mary and speaks with other doctors before arriving at her diagnosis: hemihyperplasia–multiple lipomatosis syndrome (HHML).  

It's a rare disorder that causes multiple benign fat tumors (a.k.a. lipomas) and abnormal growth in one side or structure of the body, according to the National Organization for Rare Diseases. And it's still fairly new, even to experts: It was first identified in 1998, a paper in the journal Pediatric Dermatology explains.

"Essentially just half of your body has enlarged fatty tissue," Lee says to Mary the episode. "But I don't think this is a life-threatening condition."

INSIDER spoke with dermatologist Dr. Brittany Craiglow to learn more about HHML.

"It's part of a family of what are now called PIK3CA -related overgrowth syndromes. They are a group of conditions that are all marked by overgrowth," Craiglow, an assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine's Department of Dermatology and author of a 2013 paper on HHML, told INSIDER. 

These conditions all result from mutations in the PIK3CA gene during development, and HHML is one of the milder types, she added. She also said that it's "extraordinarily rare."

Craiglow noted that scientists are studying potential therapies for this family of syndromes, but there's currently no simple treatment to deal with HHML. As she put it: "You can't go to your doctor and be written a prescription."

But she did confirm what Lee said during the episode.

"It's a disease that tends to be limited to skin and soft tissues," Craiglow said. "It generally doesn't tend to be life-threatening."

At the end of the episode, Lee suggests that Mary try to control the growth of the extra fatty tissue with diet and exercise. And in a final interview, Mary expresses relief that the condition won't put her life at risk.

"It makes me feel better knowing that it's not life-threatening," she says. "That's the main thing."

You can catch the entire episode (and future ones) on TLC's website or through the TLCGo app .Check out a clip from the episode right here:

For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We tried a toy that lets you experience what it feels like to pop a pimple

• HBO's "Sharp Objects" is a new drama series starring Amy Adams as Camille Preaker.
• Adams' character is a trauma survivor who drinks and self-harms as a form of self-medication. 
• At HBO's TCA event in Beverly Hills, Adams said she suffered from insomnia while filming. 
• "I'd have these insane conversations with myself at four in the morning trying to decide what was my anxiety and what was Camille's," Adams said. "So I felt crazy. I did."

HBO's new mystery-drama series "Sharp Objects" follows the story of Camille Preaker, played by Amy Adams, as she navigates her traumatic past while confronting her antagonistic family in a small town. During HBO's TCA panel on Wednesday morning, Adams discussed how her hours spent playing Camille affected her once she left the show's set.

"For me family is the most grounding thing, so going home to my daughter and my husband and making dinner or doing something domestic always helps me reground myself and get back into my own reality," Adams said. "But I had extremely bad insomnia and would wake up with anxiety and have to realize that I didn't own it — it belonged to Camille."

Adams plays Camille, an alcoholic who drinks throughout the day and is also recovering from time spent in a mental health facility after she turned herself in for self-harming. Her contentious relationship with her mother combined with her task of reporting on the disturbing murders of two girls in her hometown means Camille spends much of "Sharp Objects" in a state of re-traumatization.

"I'd have these insane conversations with myself at four in the morning trying to decide what was my anxiety and what was Camille's and what I needed to let go of and what could work the next day," Adams said. "So, I felt crazy. I did."

According to "Sharp Objects" showrunner and screenwriter Marti Noxon, Adams won't have to reprise her role (and therefore re-experience Camille's anxiety) in the future. The eight-episode miniseries won't have a second season.

"We're not talking about a season two," Noxon said during the TCA panel. "This is it, so bask in it while you can."

"Sharp Objects" is airing Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m. EST. Read INSIDER's full review of the series here to learn more.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's why the US Men's team sucks at soccer

• Amy Poehler cannot stop talking about the Thai soccer team that was trapped and then rescued from a cave.
• During an appearance on NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers" Wednesday night, Poehler explained her obsession with the story and made sure to include her take on Elon Musk. 
• "Oh great, I want to hear this," Meyers said when Poehler mentioned the tech mogul. "Well, Elon Musk sent a submarine."
• "Yeah, period. The end," Poehler said.
• She then equated him to "meth heads" she used to live above while in Chicago. 
• "One time, they were like, 'We're going to fix your sink,'" she said. "Then they just took it apart and left for two weeks. That's what it felt like." 
• The 12 boys and their coach were rescued after 17 days. 
• Musk's submarine was not used. 
• Watch the interview below.

For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: North Korean defector: Kim Jong Un 'is a terrorist'

• 64 percent of women writers in the Writers Guild of America West said in a recent survey that they've faced sexual harassment at some point in their careers in film and TV.
• The survey interviewed more than 2,000 WGAW members, male and female, and found that "a significant amount of the harassment writers experience occurs in the writers' room."
• 11 percent of male writers in the guild said that they had also experienced sexual harassment at work.

In a recent survey conducted by the Writers Guild of America West, 64 percent of women writers in the Los Angeles-based guild said that they had faced sexual harassment at some point in their careers in film and television.

The survey interviewed more than 2,000 WGAW members, male and female, and found that "a significant amount of the harassment writers experience occurs in the writers' room," Deadline reported.

11 percent of male writers in the guild said that they had experienced sexual harassment at work, and the survey found that "many more writers have witnessed harassment."

The WGAW reportedly sent the results of the survey in a memo to guild members on May 22. The memo emphasized an "aim to ensure a respectful culture with zero tolerance for bullying, harassment and assault," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"While the Guild is not the employer, that does not exclude us from also addressing this as a union," the memo read. "We are exploring the possibility of a series of member conversations about standards for a successful writing room. By proscribing sexual and other harassment among writers, these standards would enable all the writers in the room to fully participate, rather than being alienated by treatment no one should have to experience. These conversations would also address situations that arise for screenwriters, MOW writers and series writers in professional meeting settings."

The memo also referenced a 2006 California Supreme Court ruling, known as the "Friends" decision, after the sitcom of the same name, which ruled that sexually explicit talk in a writers' room did not amount to sexual harassment.

The WGAW said that the decision has been "mistakenly used to justify inappropriate behavior in the workplace" and "does not permit such talk to be aimed at an individual in the room," according to THR.

SEE ALSO: The pay-TV exodus is ramping up as Netflix and other streaming services pump out high-quality original shows

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why the World Cup soccer ball looks so different

• This year, many TV shows in their second season have fallen flat compared to their first season.
• The Handmaid's Tale, Luke Cage, Westworld, Legion, 13 Reasons Why, and Sneaky Pete are among this year's slumps that seem to have fundamental flaws.
• Historically, comedies tend to improve with each season, while dramas often reach a peak in their first season and go downhill from there.
• There are five main factors that make dramas more difficult to maintain, and they all have to do with the people writing and producing them.
• TV isn't "movies, but longer"— a lot of shows are in the hands of people who never learned that.

2018 has been the year of the sophomore slump. The Handmaid's Tale, Luke Cage, Westworld, Legion, 13 Reasons Why,Jessica Jones and Sneaky Pete were among the second-year shows to disappoint, frustrate and/or inspire reevaluations of their acclaimed debut seasons.

But ironically, it's also been the year of the sophomore surge. Atlanta, The Good Fight, One Day at a Time, The Good Place, Brockmire and Timeless (RIP) were among the shows that managed to, at the very least, equal what made them so beloved to begin with. In some cases, they even surpassed their standout first seasons.

If you look at those two lists of shows, you'll note that all the ones on the former list are dramas, while most of the ones on the latter are comedies (even if Atlanta, Brockmire and One Day can all go to dark places). There are a lot of different reasons for how and why the first group of shows went awry. But if there's a Grand Unified Field Theory to the phenomenon, it's this: Like second novels and albums, sophomore seasons of TV dramas have an awfully hard time living up to the original, while comedies are much more immune to this.

When you look back over the last decade and a half of television, there are in fact plenty of comedies whose second seasons are not only clear improvements over their first (Parks and Recreation, 30 Rock, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), but stand unquestionably as the show's best runs ever (The Office, Community, Chuck). And you can find a few dramas from the same period that got better in Year Two (BreakingBad, Dexter) or even peaked at that point (Justified, Sons of Anarchy). More often, however, you'll find sophomore years that ranged from disappointments (Mr. Robot, Homeland) to outright disasters (True Detective, that Friday Night Lights year when Landry killed all those people).

What makes dramas more susceptible to this than comedies? There are a variety of problems they have to face, starting with the biggest (unavoidable spoilers are coming for many shows):

SEE ALSO: HBO's programming boss will not apologize for 'Westworld' being confusing: 'It's not for casual viewers'

1. The plot problem

By and large, contemporary sitcoms are more dependent on characters, while dramas — particularly the intensely serialized kind that's become ubiquitous in the streaming age — lean much more heavily on plot. The more everyone (both the people watching shows and the people making them) gets to know the characters, the stronger the comedy can be, which is why you hear comedy writers talk about needing a half-season or more to fully capture a character's voice and figure out how best to utilize the talents of the actors playing them. The Office needed a summer off to make Michael Scott less of a creep, while Parks and Rec had to reframe how other characters reacted to Leslie Knope, while also recognizing that Chris Pratt was much better as a lovable doofus than a selfish heel.

This happens with dramas, too — look at how important Breaking Bad eventually made Jesse Pinkman, who was initially supposed to die within a few episodes, once everyone saw how good Aaron Paul was. It just doesn't occur as often, particularly as most of them prioritize cliffhangers and twists and other attention-grabbing plot devices. And characters tend to be more of a renewable resource than plot: If the audience understands what makes these people tick and what can make them hurt, then the show can work even if the storylines are less thrilling the second time around (or are an outright rehash). But when you lean more on "and then this crazy thing happens, and then another crazy thing happens, and you won't believe the third crazy thing we've got planned," then you tend to burn through your most potent material — and the audience's goodwill — much more quickly.

Ideally, a drama has great characters and a thrilling plot (again, see Breaking Bad). But it's not a coincidence that Mad Men, one of the most gracefully aging of recent dramas, exhausted a lot of its big story points early on (Don's secret identity, Peggy's pregnancy) yet had such a richly drawn group of characters that their reaction to the story was usually much more exciting than whatever the story actually was.

2. The first album problem

It's an old saw in the record business that every musician had a lifetime to generate the material for their first albums, and then a couple of months to figure out what to put on the follow-up. TV shows don't always work that way (J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof threw together the Lost pilot script over a few weeks after another writer got fired), but at minimum, there's often a sense in freshman-show writers' rooms to put the most vital and resonant material into that first year to make as big an initial splash as possible.

That's why, for instance, most recent comic book shows use their hero's most famous arch-villain in the first season, then have to flail around to find another one as compelling as Reverse-Flash or the Kingpin. Luke Cage and Jessica Jones both suffered from this to varying degrees this year. (Though, really, Cage had been in trouble since it killed off Cottonmouth halfway through Season One, while Jones wasn't as badly hurt because its heroine is a more fundamentally interesting character no matter who she's up against.) Sneaky Pete is not a superhero show, but it couldn't have asked for a more perfect Season One villain than Bryan Cranston, whose absence left a charisma vacuum that Season Two could never entirely fill, among its other issues.

This doesn't have to be a crippling problem — The Sopranos never had a better villain than Tony's mother, and David Chase had spent years mapping out some version of that Season One arc. But it requires an incredibly high degree of execution to pull off and a dramatic infrastructure and characterization that are strong enough to move on past a show's initial idea. (Even back in 2000, Sopranos fans were grumbling that Janice and Richie were disappointing antagonists compared to Livia and Uncle Junior.) If you look at the outlier dramas that improved significantly in Season Two, they were uneven at the start and needed a year to figure themselves out. When you start brilliant, there's often nowhere to go but down.

3. The miniseries problem

American Horror Story, Fargo and other anthology miniseries have made the one-season story a bit more fashionable than it used to be, but the TV business is still inclined towards stories and characters that continue on for as many years as prove profitable to do so. This leads to a lot of shows with premises best suited to live fast, die young and leave a good-looking corpse instead sticking around into awkward zombie middle age.

The most glaring example of this in the last decade was Homeland. A miniseries that ends with Brody blowing himself up, or even with Carrie stopping him at the last second, would still be talked about in awed whispers. Instead, it awkwardly kept him around (and around, and … ); by the time he died for real and the show reinvented itself as a classier 24, the whole thing felt like a cautionary tale.

13 Reasons Why and The Handmaid's Tale were even more overtly suited to a one-and-done treatment, since their first seasons exhausted the plots of the books that inspired them. Handmaid's at least ended on a cliffhanger, and there were ways in which the second season improved on the first in the way that it (like many of the aforementioned late-blooming sitcoms) delved deeper into its characters and the world they occupied. But the fact that June escaped captivity three different times and it never quite took suggested the fundamental limitations of this premise, no matter how many interviews the showrunner gives about his 10-year plan. And 13 Reasons Why embarrassingly contorted itself this way and that to re-solve a mystery its first season had exhaustively solved, simply because the show was apparently too popular to cancel.

• In the third episode of Dr. Sandra Lee's new TLC series "Dr. Pimple Popper," Lee treats a patient named Anthony.
• Anthony has a cyst located in the facial area sometimes called the "triangle of death."
• Skin infections in this part of the face may spread quickly and lead to blindness or even death. 
• It sounds terrifying, but doctors say these serious complications are really rare thanks to antibiotics.
• Anthony's cyst removal went smoothly, and six weeks after the procedure he said his life had "changed for the better."
• Warning: This post contains a graphic image.

Dr. Sandra Lee's new TLC show "Dr. Pimple Popper" has kicked off its first season with some truly compelling pops, including the biggest cyst and the biggest lipoma Lee has ever seen.

The series' third episode, which aired Wednesday night, offered another dramatic popping narrative: A cyst located in the facial area called "the triangle of death."

It may sound like manufactured TV drama, but that is a real term used colloquially to describe a part of the face where skin infections could cause more serious complications. 

Here's how Lee dealt the "triangle of death" cyst on the show. 

Anthony, a 23-year-old personal trainer, seeks Lee's help to remove a cyst right next to his eye.

In an interview filmed before his appointment with Lee, Anthony says his cyst grew from the size of a grain of rice to the size of a grape in just two years. He adds that the cyst affects his ability to interface with clients and even factored into a recent breakup. But doctors haven't been able to help. 

"I've been to three doctors, two of them being plastic surgeons," Anthony says in the episode. " It's so close to my eye none of them are comfortable enough to remove it."

Typically the type of cyst Anthony has is harmless. As Lee has explained in dozens of her previous videos, it's simply a contained collection of dead skin cells beneath the skin's surface. But, as Lee notes after her examination of Anthony, its location is potentially problematic. 

"One of the interesting things about Anthony's cyst is where it is located," Lee says during the episode. "This is called the triangle of death. This is an area that if you have something that is infected on your skin there is a higher chance of this infection causing blindness or possible death."

The "triangle of death" refers to a part of the face where skin infections may be more dangerous. 

"The triangle of death is a colloquial term for an area of the face that includes the region of the nose and corners of the mouth," infectious disease physician Dr. Amesh A. Adalja told Healthline in 2017. "This area is connected via blood vessels to areas of the skull where infections can spread very rapidly and become more serious."

If the skin in this area of the face is broken and becomes infected, that infection could quickly spread, potentially leading to facial paralysis, impaired motor function, vision loss, and a condition called cavernous sinus thrombosis, Healthline reported. (That's a scientific term for a potentially fatal blood clot at the base of the brain, according to the US National Library of Medicine.)

Luckily, these complications are not common. 

"In this day and age, with antibiotics, we won't really let [an infection] get to that level," Lee herself told Allure back in 2016. "Obviously if a pimple gets big enough and ends up causing problems, you should see a dermatologist or a doctor about it right away. And it's easy to treat a lot of these infections with [oral] antibiotics."

Dermatologist Rebecca Kazin, who also spoke with Allure, agreed that deaths linked to the triangle of death are really rare. "This possibility is extremely remote, and I have never seen anything close to this occurring over the past decade of practice," she told Allure. 

So the triangle of death isn't necessarily cause for all-out panic. Just consider it another good reason to resist the urge to pop your own pimples. 

After the cyst removal, Anthony healed up just fine. 

In a final interview filmed six weeks after the removal procedure, Anthony's scar is barely visible. With the cyst gone, he adds, his confidence has surged and his personal training business has picked up. 

"I feel amazing," Anthony says. "My life has changed for the better. My outlook on everything is completely positive."

There are three more episodes of "Dr. Pimple Popper" to come this season. You can catch up an all the pops by watching previous episodes on TLC's website or through the TLCGo app. 

For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Here's why the US Men's team sucks at soccer

With the summer TV season well underway, several fan-favorite shows are returning with new seasons next month.

To find out which returning shows audiences are anticipating the most, the TV-tracking app TV Time analyzed data from its 12 million global users to see which upcoming TV shows viewers had followed the most frequently on its platform.

The list includes the upcoming second season of the Netflix drama "Ozark," and the fourth season of the Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson-led HBO series "Ballers."

Here are the 5 returning TV shows that viewers are anticipating the most in August, according to TV Time:

SEE ALSO: Most Netflix subscribers with young kids have no idea Disney content will get pulled off the service

5. "Greenleaf" (Season 3) — Premieres August 28 on OWN

Summary: "The original drama series 'Greenleaf' from award-winning writer/producer Craig Wright takes viewers into the unscrupulous world of the Greenleaf family and their sprawling Memphis megachurch, where scandalous secrets and lies are as numerous as the faithful."

4. "Ballers" (Season 4) — Premieres August 12 on HBO

Summary: "Success hits hard. Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson stars in this series as a retired football superstar trying to reinvent himself as a financial manager for current players in sun-soaked Miami."

3. "The Sinner" (Season 2) — Premieres August 1 on USA Network

Summary:"Follows a young mother (Jessica Biel) who, when overcome by an inexplicable fit of rage, commits a startling act of violence."

Working in a restaurant isn’t all fancy knife tricks and big tips. It’s surprising that more movies don’t understand the true grueling and passionate work that goes into a restaurant, considering so many writers spend their time waiting tables before their big break. Here are some movies and TV shows that nail some aspect of what it’s actually like to work in a restaurant.

"Big Night" will show you what it’s like to fail.

Four out of five restaurants fail in the first five years. This mouth-watering film that stars Stanley Tucci and Tony Shalhoub as Italian immigrant brothers also shows what it’s like when a restaurant isn’t thriving. Viewers will empathize with the frustration of the cook when faced with Americans only looking for the Americanized versions of the food they cook.

When it looks like the brothers will need to pack up and return to Italy, Tucci’s character still cooks his brother and their waiter a perfect omelet, enjoying this last breakfast together while wondering what they’re going to do now.

"Party Down" understands that the food service industry is often a pitstop.

This brilliant, but short-lived show about a catering company in Los Angeles was famous for its slacking out-of-work artists who refused to admit they were waiters. They neglect work, do drugs, and hook up with each other and the guests, reminding us that not everyone in the food industry is passionate about the work they do. These people might be serving you with a smile, but could be dreaming about their novel getting published or their agent landing them a role.

"Bob’s Burgers" shows what it’s like to run a family business.

Bob and Linda Belcher own a burger restaurant in a seaside town with their children, who often act as their extra employees. They may engage in more wacky hi-jinks than other fast-food eateries, but they have the restaurant staples such as regulars, a rivalry with the restaurant across the street, a weird, but forgiving landlord, a failed attempt at weekend brunch, and the constant stress of owning a restaurant.

• Roseanne Barr appeared in a live taping of a podcast in New York City and on Fox News' "Hannity" Thursday night.
• The actress discussed the Valerie Jarrett tweet which resulted in the cancellation of ABC's "Roseanne" revival.
• Barr also opened up about the forthcoming spin-off show, which she will not be a part of.
  She says she has "mixed emotions" about it. 
• Barr isn't sure if it will succeed without her. 
• "It is going to be interesting to see a bunch of really privileged people who grew up in Hollywood writing for the working class," said Barr.

Roseanne Barr spoke out about her ABC series carrying on without her for the first time Thursday night.

"Well, I have mixed emotions and I go up and down with it. Sometimes I’m good with it sometimes I’m not; I’m human," Barr said in a live taping of her friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach's podcast at the New York Comedy Club, according to The Hollywood Reporter. "I try to think positively and to afford even those who slander me, I try to treat them with human dignity, despite what they do to me. I’m sorry that it wasn’t important enough for [ABC] to call me and ask me what I meant [with the tweet]."

"Roseanne" was promptly canceled in May after Barr likened former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to an ape on Twitter. 

"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said in a statement.

Barr later argued that her tweet wasn't racist as she believed that Jarrett is white.

The next month, ABC announced a 10-episode "Roseanne" spin-off without Barr, tentatively called "The Conners," will premiere in the fall. Stars John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and Sara Gilbert are among the original cast to return. The show will premiere October 16. 

Can the show live on without her?

"Well it is going to be interesting to see a bunch of really privileged people who grew up in Hollywood writing for the working class," Barr said during the live podcast taping. 

During its time on TV, the "Roseanne" revival was a ratings winner. More than 27 million viewers tuned in to the series' premiere after accounting for delayed viewer ratings. According to Nielsen, the series received an average of 23.2 million viewers. The next largest broadcast show, "The Big Bang Theory," received 18.7 million average viewers this year.

Thursday evening during her first TV appearance following the Jarrett tweet on Fox News' "Hannity," Barr discussed what made viewers tune into "Roseanne" week after week and acknowledged that she knew how big the show was for ABC.

"I tell more jokes about myself than I do anybody else, because, to me, comedy is very personal. That's what makes it funny," Barr said on "Hannity." "That's what made people like the 'Roseanne' show because they saw themselves in it or had an aunt, or their mom, or their sister. Somebody in their family was a loud, outspoken woman who loved her family and that was what I was so excited about to come back to television was to show that family is also multiracial and lives next door to Muslims whose ideas they don't agree with. That was what I brought to television and what kicked everybody's a-- in the ratings. And they [ABC] should be so lucky that they'll ever get anywhere near that. And they can't take that away from me, no matter what happened."

You can watch a portion of her interview with "Hannity" below:

For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage .

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What happens when you hold in your pee for too long

• Britney Spears appeared on NBC's"Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" on Thursday to participate in a sketch called "Ew!"
• Fallon reprised his role as sassy Sara while Spears played BFF Abby.
• The entertainer wore a headband with sparkly animal ears, a blue shirt with pineapples, and a bright pink skirt. 
• Spears showed off a childhood photo of herself and gave her best model poses. 
• She isn't the first star to join Fallon for the "Ew!" skit — Jennifer Lopez, Ariana Grande, Seth Rogen, and Zac Efron have also previously done it.  
• Watch the video below.

For more great stories, head to INSIDER's homepage.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What happens when you hold in your pee for too long

• Gordon Ramsay will be in a new show called "Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted" where he travels the world and learns about the food in different regions.
• Part of the show involves him competing with local chefs to make regional dishes.
• People think it's potentially culturally insensitive for Ramsay to think he can do it better.
• The premise is being unfavorably compared to Anthony Bourdain's shows.

National Geographic Studios announced a new show with celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, and people aren't happy about it.

"Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted," according to Variety, will take Ramsay around the world, where he tracks down "high-octane" traditions local to different regions. In the final segment of each show, Ramsay will be tested against locals, "pitting his own interpretations of regional dishes against the tried-and-true classics."

It's that last part of the show's format — where the "Hell's Kitchen" host will compete with local chefs to make cuisines from other cultures — that people perceive as potentially culturally insensitive.

Eater characterized it as Ramsay hoping to "teach locals how to cook their own food"and"[parachuting] into foreign food cultures and show the locals he can cook their cuisines better than they can." Others are criticizing Ramsey for thinking he can swoop into another culture's territory to prove he can do it better.

Eddie Huang, restaurateur and author of "Fresh Off the Boat," said the show is "the last thing the food world needs."

Some people are unfavorably comparing the premise of "Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted" to Anthony Bourdain's shows. Bourdain was famously inquisitive and respectful of other cultures, with shows like "Parts Unknown" and "No Reservations." 

People will be able to judge for themselves when the show premiers. It's scheduled for an unspecified date in 2019, according to Variety.

National Geographic Studios didn't immediately respond to INSIDER's request for comment.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: I tried the newest BlackBerry phone for a week

• "Game of Thrones" actress Lena Headey (Cersei) appeared on NBC's "Running Wild With Bear Grylls."
  
• When asked how she handles all the press for the show, Headey said she was "horrible."
• Headey told Grylls about a time when she was seven months pregnant on the press tour.
• "This guy stood up and he said, 'Uh I just want to say that you're really disappointing in real life,'" Headey recounted.
• She also said he told her she looked better in her blonde wig on the show.
• "I was just crushed," Headey told Grylls. "How is that alright to say?"
• Watch the full clip from "Running Wild" below.

"Game of Thrones" star Lena Headey says she has a "horrible" time with press tours, and for good reason. While challenging herself with rugged outdoor obstacles on "Running Wild With Bear Grylls" on an episode that premiered earlier this year, Headey recounted a time when a reporter openly criticized her in front of a room of journalists.

"How are you with the press?" Grylls asked Headey while they were resting.

"I'm horrible," Headey said. "Yeah, you have to do these things for all the awards and everything where loads of people interview you. I went in and was seven months pregnant and [there was] a whole room of journalists, and this guy stood up and he said, 'Uh I just want to say that you're really disappointing in real life.'"

"And he went, 'Is that your real hair?'" Headey continued. "And I went 'Yeah' and he said, 'The wig is much better. I like you as a blonde.'"

"Unbelievable," Grylls said.

"I was like, 'OK.' I was just crushed," Headey said. "How is that alright to say?"

Headey was pregnant with her second child in 2015, while promoting the fifth season of "Game of Thrones." On that season, her character Cersei Lannister was imprisoned by the High Sparrow and forced to walk naked through the streets of King's Landing as a form of penance and punishment. Headey used a body double for the nude shots in that scene.

On the "Running Wild" episode, Grylls went on to commend Headey for toughing it out in the wilderness with him. Throughout the episode, Headey had hiked up mountains, swam in freezing water, and helped construct and steer a raft across a lake. She said she enjoyed the experience despite the physical and mental challenges.

"It's just lovely isn't it? It's sort of free," Headey said. "And trees don't say 'you're really disappointing' as you walk past."

You can stream the full "Running Wild" episode with Lena Headey on Hulu, and watch the clip of Headey and Grylls discussing the incident above.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What happens when you hold in your pee for too long

• "Game of Thrones" star Maisie Williams reflects on growing up on the set of HBO's hit series in a new profile with The Australian.
• Williams was 12 years old when she was cast as the young Arya Stark. 
• Her mother debated taking her out of read-throughs for episodes that contained sex.
• But this only piqued her interest, according to The Australia.
• "The sex was just quite ­embarrassing and awkward for us," Williams said. 
• Now Williams watches the episodes with her mother and grandmother (who is "plied" with lots of gin).

"Game of Thrones" star Maisie Williams has grown up on the set of HBO's biggest series. Williams was just 12 years old when she was cast as Arya Stark on the fantasy series which included sometimes graphic depictions of sex and violence. 

"The sex was just quite embarrassing and awkward for us," Williams, 21, told The Australian in a newly published profile.

Williams' mother, along with Sophie Turner's mother, first tried to keep the sex scenes on the show out of their daughters' experience on set:

"Williams' and Turner's mothers stopped shielding them from the show's graphic sex and violence early on, when they debated taking the girls out of a read-through of a scene featuring two girls 'going at it' — trying to keep their daughters in the dark only served to pique their interest. 'The sex was just quite ­embarrassing and awkward for us,' Williams says, matter-of-factly."

The scene in question of two girls "going at it" was likely from the first season's seventh episode, "You Win or You Die," in which two sex worker characters (Ros and an unnamed woman) effectively "audition" for jobs in Petyr Baelish's brothel by performing sex acts on one another.

According to The Australian, Williams has now "watched many episodes on the sofa next to her grandmother."

"Bless her," Williams said. "My mum just plies her with more and more gin."

Williams says her best friend and co-star Sophie Turner underwent a similar experience with her mother and the awkwardness around sex scenes. Ahead of the show's seventh season, Turner herself said "Game of Thrones" was effectively her sex education.

"The first time I ever found out about oral sex was from reading the 'Game of Thrones' script," Turner told The Times. "I said, 'Wow! People do that?' That's fascinating! I guess that was my sex education."

Both Williams and Turner will appear on the eighth and final season of "Game of Thrones." Now that the series is coming to an end, both young women will enter a new phase of their careers and lives. At some point in the future, Williams will be a bridesmaid at Turner's upcoming wedding to singer Joe Jonas.

"I've been thinking a lot lately about before the show and how normal it was, and how I'm going to have a normal — well, maybe not completely normal — but I'm going to have a life after the show," Williams told The Australian.

"Game of Thrones" returns for its final six episodes sometime in the first half of 2019. In the meantime, you can read our list of 21 key predictions we have for the final episodes of "Game of Thrones."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Super-Earths are real and they could be an even better place for life than Earth

When "Keeping Up with the Kardashians" premiered in 2007, the world was a very different place — and so was the show’s star, Kim Kardashian. At the time, she was a single 27-year-old whose career was just getting started, running a boutique with her sisters and dealing with the usual relationship and family drama that we all face.

Over the course of the series, we saw Kardashian hit so many different milestones, both professionally and personally. Every big moment in her life has been documented, from her first Playboy shoot to the births of her children. Now, a 37-year-old mother of three and the owner of the wildly successful KKW Beauty, she’s practically a different person entirely than she was when the show first started filming.

Here’s a look back at Kardashian over every season of "KUWTK." 

There were a lot of hoop earrings in season one.

"KUWTK"’s first season was all about introducing fans to Kardashian and her family, and at this point, Kardashian was dealing with the earliest stages of fame. Hardly a talk show veteran, in one episode, she was pumped (but nervous) to talk to Tyra Banks about her relationship with Reggie Bush on her show, and the biggest moments that season for her were her "Girls Gone Wild" shoot with her sisters and her "Playboy" feature.

There were also tons of hoop earrings and wide belts going on because it was 2007 — and to be fair, her sisters were all about it, too.

Season two is when Kim bought a Bentley.

In season two, Kardashian was still very consumed by her store, DASH, and was also starting to show a few signs of being a diva (which her sisters definitely called her out for). At this point, she was still dating Bush, and she famously bought her Bentley as a symbol of her success … which led to so much petty fighting with Khloe and Kourtney.

In season three, Kim took selfies at an inopportune time.

Season three brought LASIK surgery, constant bickering with her sisters (especially when they tried to borrow her clothes), and Kardashian’s first perfume being released, which was huge for her at the time. She also joined the Pussycat Dolls for a performance, and watching her prepare to dance with them was nothing short of hilarious. 

Also important: this was the season that Kardashian would pull out her phone to take selfies while the family drove Khloe to jail, leading Kris Jenner to utter her now-famous line, "Your sister’s going to jail."